CHRIS NEUMER: Sometimes I even bring a back-up for the back-up recorder. I figure I’ve got one opportunity to do something with you guys, and I don’t want to screw it up.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, I understand, I understand.
CHRIS NEUMER: It’s better to have three copies of you saying the same thing than none.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: So how many interviews did you do this time in LA?
CHRIS NEUMER: I’m going to do probably four, because I got in this morning. I’ve got you, I’m doing Morgan Spurlock from Supersize Me tomorrow, I’m supposed to be doing something with Jeremy Sisto next week, and indie film producer Alison Dickey, who’s married to John C. Reilly, who I’m also supposed to be doing something with next week. Any food you recommend here?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: You know what, I am getting the grilled chicken salad, and that’s good. I’ve heard the ribs are good.
CHRIS NEUMER: I think I smelled the ribs.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah.
CHRIS NEUMER: You know, I think I might just go with a cheeseburger though, I don’t think I’ve had one of those in a while. Are you ready to leap in, start answering questions?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Oh yes, I am.
CHRIS NEUMER: I’ve always been impressed with Harrison Ford’s work, because when you look at his work, you can say he’s made 3 billion dollars at the box office. Then I started looking at the films you’ve done, and I figured with all the films you’ve done, your films have got to have grossed well over a billion dollars at the box office. Is that at the top of your resume? Kevin Grevioux: my films have grossed 2 billion dollars.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, but they’re not my films. Maybe Underworld, but otherwise small roles, but I guess I’m blessed enough to get small roles in big films.
CHRIS NEUMER: You just don’t tell them that.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) But you know, it’s been fun, I’ve learned a lot.
CHRIS NEUMER: I thought that was good though. Even so, it’s like in basketball, they have this statistic for every 48 minutes. Maybe there’s a guy that’s on the bench a lot who hasn’t done so well, but for every 48 minutes his numbers get multiplied out. So that’s what I was thinking of, maybe you’re not above the title talent, but if you multiply it out, you’re still doing pretty well here.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, well thanks for the compliment though, it’s incomparable.
CHRIS NEUMER: We won’t talk about Men in Black 2 or Planet of the Apes much.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) Yeah, but you know what? I had fun on those films.
CHRIS NEUMER: That’s something I didn’t mention before. Maybe you’re not making the greatest amount of cash, but if you’re doing something you enjoy, it seems like that’s worth more than the cash.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, I really liked working on both films with [makeup artist] Rick Baker.
CHRIS NEUMER: But you had fun and you liked working with Rick Baker?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Oh, yeah, Rick is great.
CHRIS NEUMER: What is it about Rick Baker that you enjoy working with? Because for me, to get in a chair for four hours and not move, I don’t think I’d enjoy doing that.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, but you know what? When you’re a sci-fi guy like me, you’ve heard of him before. So a lot of these people that you work with are like gurus in an industry that you’d love to get in. So, working with Tim Burton, he did the first Batman movie so it was great to work with him on the Planet of the Apes movie.
CHRIS NEUMER: What is it specifically that made it great? Was it, "I was a fan of his for a long time," or is it something he does like, "I was a fan of his for a long time, and then I started working with him, and I liked this too."
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I guess what it was, was that he had fun with it. He takes it seriously, yet he has fun with it. It’s kind of like how when you’re a kid talking about comic books, having fun, talking about who’s stronger, the Hulk or Superman, or something like that. So when you see this, and you see a guy who has that kind of enthusiasm for fantasy stuff, it’s like, "Man, this guy is cool." That’s what I love the most. With Rick, his yarns amaze me, I love looking at that stuff. The fact that he’s loved that stuff since he was a kid, the fact that he can talk intelligently about what was cool about this movie versus that movie, what inspired him, and they were the same things that inspired you. So you feel like, he did this, and he reached his goal, and maybe I can reach mine too.
CHRIS NEUMER: You mentioned Tim Burton being fantasy, being heavy into that. Is there something that he brought to working on Planet of the Apes that maybe someone like Clint Eastwood might not have, or someone else not into fantasy?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I guess the weirdness, and the weirdness makes it less accepting.
CHRIS NEUMER: Any examples of weirdness that you can think of?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: If you had seen his production designs. You look at the vision he has, and the movie takes on a different light, if you can understand that. There’s the old movie, which was good for its time, I loved it. But with Tim, his drawings led to a lot of the production design as well, and a lot of the costume design as well, which gave it more texture than the first one had, and I liked that. I think he was the first one that I heard of who used a re-imagining, and that’s what he did, he re-imagined it. Looking at what he did with Sleepy Hollow and how that felt.
CHRIS NEUMER: It had a great feel. I wanted to like that movie so much. I don’t think there’s even been a movie that’s had such wonderful production values, and such a horrible script, they needed to do something with that.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Well, you know Andrew Kevin Walker –
CHRIS NEUMER: Got lucky with Se7en?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: When you read his work, he’s a good writer.
CHRIS NEUMER: He did something else recently, didn’t he?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I Know What You Did Last Summer.
CHRIS NEUMER: No, that was Kevin Williamson.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Ok, Andrew Kevin Walker did –
CHRIS NEUMER: He’s got three, he and Ehren Kruger, who did Arlington Road, Scream 3, and there’s something else he did –
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I can’t remember.
CHRIS NEUMER: Oh! He did 8MM.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I’ve never seen it.
CHRIS NEUMER: It’s a Nick Cage movie, where all Nick does is yell all during the movie.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) Well, I didn’t see 8 MM.
CHRIS NEUMER: You are a lucky, lucky man.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, well I know I saw part of it, just not the whole thing. I read some of Walker’s work, and I think it’s great.
CHRIS NEUMER: Kevin Walker or Williamson?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Who did 8MM?
CHRIS NEUMER: That was Andrew Kevin Walker.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I read his stuff before.
CHRIS NEUMER: Williamson did I Know What You Did Last Summer and the first Scream.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I haven’t read any of Williamson’s, but I read some of Walker’s work and I liked it. But the movies always turn out different from the screenplay for a myriad of different reasons. Everyone puts their two cents in it, and blah, blah, blah. It’s really a collaborative effort, so I understand there’s going to be some changes, so I’m not going to blame him too much.
CHRIS NEUMER: With Tim Burton, it’s all up in his head. He’s one of those directors who not only has a strange thing going on up there, but he’s able to tap into it and bring it out and onto the page, and it actually translates onto the screen.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Exactly, and I like that.
CHRIS NEUMER: You mentioned a commercial you were in, in the car, and I was curious to know: it seems to me outside of the political correctness of the plight of the gorilla, there seems like there are certain people, and I should call up Johnny Cochrane, I’m sure he can do something with it, but were there any of your friends who called you up and made fun of you, a little bit of ribbing for playing the gorilla?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) No, not all. Most people are enamored with the film industry, so anything you do, it’s a role, it’s fun. Now, I’m sure that if I did something offensive, they’d say something against that, like if I was the guy picking up elephant doo-doo behind the circus train, I’m sure they’d say something about that. But everyone loves it, their first questions was, was it hot underneath all that makeup? Or, how was it working with Tim Burton? Or, I sound like Michael Clark Duncan and he sounds like me. Or, how was Mark Wahlberg?
CHRIS NEUMER: Now I’m trying to think of Tiny Lister talk, and I can’t even think of his voice. Do you guys ever get together, all the big black guys? There’s probably five of you guys.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Well, here’s what happens. We mostly know each other, because we used to all audition together. So I’ve seen Terry before, Tiny Lister on things, you know you see a lot of those guys, so you know them from the industry. So it’s pretty cool.
CHRIS NEUMER: How often does it happen that someone comes up to you and says, "Oh, you were so great in the Green Mile," and you keep on walking.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: You know what, that’s only happened one time. Like I said, I’m only 6’2"; I’m not as big as Michael. So they might say, like you say, somehow I thought you’d be bigger. So, they’re kind of used to that, so they don’t expect Michael to be as big as he actually is. But he is big; he’s 6’5". So he’s a legitimately big guy.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah. It also seems like it taps into something, I was thinking of the perception of you. You’re huge. My biceps are living vicariously through your wrists. I admire what you have done, creating, literally, your body of work, because there’s no way in hell I could ever do it. I’ve got long 36 inch, lanky arms, and I can’t do anything with them. But I was curious to know, you’ve got this deep voice, hearty laugh, you’re this big strapping guy. It seems like there would be a perception of you that’s incredibly different from the real you.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I guess there is, but I get that a lot, that comes with the territory. When I was working with a microbiologist at NIH, here I have my degree in Microbiology, and I am under a hood looking at cells and someone will come in and say, why aren’t you playing football? It’s like, I have a degree. Obviously I’m academically oriented.
CHRIS NEUMER: Did you ever play football?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, but I never played past high school, and I entered college only weighing 165 pounds.
CHRIS NEUMER: Wow.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) Yeah, so I got a growth spurt and gained 50 pounds of muscle.
CHRIS NEUMER: Ok, what happens when that happens in baseball, I’ll tell you I know what you were doing in the locker now. What was the motivation for you to keep yourself going?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: If I were to be a skeptic, I’m still always going to keep in shape.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, well there’s in shape and then there’s you.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: But I’m not that big though.
CHRIS NEUMER: Oh come on.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I’m not though.
CHRIS NEUMER: What do you bench now?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: That’s hard. The most I’ve ever benched is 420 or something. But I wasn’t doing it for football, I was doing it for my own personal gratification, and because I could.
CHRIS NEUMER: Gotcha.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: So now, I don’t bench too much anymore. There was a time I worked out recently relatively regularly, and I benched 375 pounds, but why?
CHRIS NEUMER: If you’re ever trapped under a car, you’re going to be ok.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: But if I’m not playing football for the Minnesota Vikings, so why? So that’s my whole thing. Also, it’s part of being a kid, what kid reading comic books doesn’t want to be a big, strong superhero?
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, but with superheroes the muscles are in the suits. I’m trying to figure out what the most I’ve ever benched is. Now the bar is 45 pounds. I played Division 3 for college basketball, and during that time I must’ve benched 145 pounds, the most in my life, period. I know I killed myself doing that, and you’ve done three times that, I think?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, but I was a growing boy.
CHRIS NEUMER: Yeah, I’m just giving you a little bit of a hard time.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: That’s all right.
CHRIS NEUMER: I was also wondering, sort of going along with the perception of you, in the other world you’re probably a bad ass. When you’re out there, and you pull those things out of your chest, and they digitally altered your voice slightly, didn’t they?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: No, not at all.
CHRIS NEUMER: No? Wow, I thought there was at least a little bit of digital altering.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: People say that too, and I wonder why? I have no idea why.
CHRIS NEUMER: I was just trying to think, what if you took that persona that you bring forth onscreen and applied that to getting a table in a restaurant.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: I’d get shot, or they’d call the police. You’re supposed to pick up guys like that. When I used to work as a bouncer in a nightclub, you would have mostly problems with the little guys, more so than the big guys.
CHRIS NEUMER: I read in another interview you did that you didn’t necessarily mind being typecast. So then I started wondering about this. It seems as though whatever you’ve been typecast as has been contained within a relatively small opening. What do you think is the next step for you where you sort of break out a little bit from the mold? Where do you go from here?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: To be honest, that’s what my writing is for. I have my writing as a catharsis, for that other side of it, for the fun part. That’s why I came out here. I did not come out here to be an actor. I ended up falling into that because of the physicality that you mentioned, so it’s like, this is fun, it’s cool, and you can make decent money.
CHRIS NEUMER: We’re talking about the acting stuff.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, exactly. Why can’t I do that while I’m writing? I get better at writing, work on my craft, and it all came together with Underworld. So I was able to write myself a part and play it. Fortunately I found a good guy in Len Wiseman, who gave me the opportunity and it worked out.
CHRIS NEUMER: I liked the part about how you couldn’t make the part too big because then they would’ve brought in a rapper. As soon as you said that I tried to imagine Ludacris in the role, this wiry, skinny guy in this role, and it was kind of funny.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Exactly, and that’s what happens sometimes.
CHRIS NEUMER: That would’ve taken on a different role though.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Right. But to me, the writing is where the real moola is. So I don’t mind being typecast as an athlete. My voice may even prohibit me from doing certain kinds of roles, and as an actor you understand that. You could have a guy who’s 6’4", good looking, well-built, and he could be 42 years old, but they’re not going to cast him as a father. He doesn’t look like what America thinks a father looks like. He doesn’t have a belly, he’s not balding, there’s not gray hair.
CHRIS NEUMER: There isn’t anything wrong with that.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Hey look, I’m bald! But, they look at that as typical, so you get a guy who’s having a hard time finding work, and he’s in his 40’s, why, because they don’t see him as a father. He doesn’t look like a father he looks like he could still play the NFL. They also say he can’t be a doctor, even though, how many people that are doctors right now used to play college ball, and also, NFL ball, there are a lot of them, or at least a few. Robert Smith, who played with the Minnesota Vikings, he has his degree in chemistry.
CHRIS NEUMER: I’m sure, knowing what I know about him now, I’m sure he’s trying to create some new medication for himself that’ll make him normal. Is there ever a sense, I mean, I know screenwriting is where the real you lies, but your acting is also getting bigger, you played a character that had name this time as opposed to "thug".
KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) or henchman.
CHRIS NEUMER: It seems like, and I don’t want to say you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth, but you really stood out in Underworld. There’s a reason I’m here talking to you. You and Michael Sheen had a presence, and that’s something you either have or you don’t. You guys had it. Scott Speedman was good and all.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Right, he was very good.
CHRIS NEUMER: But when I think back on it, I think of Kate Beckinsdale’s pants, you and Michael Sheen.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Right. Of course I’d like to do other roles.
CHRIS NEUMER: So sort of tying the two together, I know Lisa had said you’re writing something, is it the Pale Rider?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: The Pale Horse Rider.
CHRIS NEUMER: The Pale Horse. Is there anything about that you can divulge on the record?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Not yet. I don’t feel comfortable doing that yet, it’s not at that stage, so I have to wait on that one. But I am developing some stuff now that I’ll be acting in as well as writing and producing. That’s where the real art is, to me.
CHRIS NEUMER: Producing?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: No, writing, for me. That’s why I got into this business. So, I know I have a presence on screen, but even though it’s limited, I really don’t mind it because I get to work with so many cool people, and I’m having fun.
CHRIS NEUMER: Now I’m not asking for names here, but I just want a perspective. Are there people who you’ve met who it isn’t cool to work with? Like, if I find out he or she is working on this project, I’m not on it, I’m stepping away.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Believe me, I haven’t done a whole lot, but I have not run into that. I’ve heard of it, about a lot of that stuff, but I haven’t experienced it personally yet. I’ve had nothing but good things to say about the people I’ve worked with, it’s been really fun. But you know, there’s also a sense that when you do see people act like that, they’re under a lot of pressure, and a lot of people have been told for years, "You’re not going to make it, you’re no good," blah, blah, blah. Things you probably didn’t hear, so it’s like, "What are you going to say now?" Sometimes people will come up to you, and they want to get with you on your side now when they weren’t there before.
CHRIS NEUMER: Oh, I can’t tell, but it’s upwards of ten now, how many times – and it only happens in LA. I’ll be introduced to a pretty good-looking girl, 20-something-year-old girl, and she’ll be looking away, and then somebody will say to her, "So did Chris tell you he writes a national film magazine?" Suddenly, she’s like, "Oh…" Keep on going baby.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: That does happen a lot.
CHRIS NEUMER: When you talk about them not being on your side, and then you start gaining some success and notoriety, and then they’re asking you what’s going on. I just remember Chris Rock’s comments, "Look at these rocks, beotch!"
KEVIN GREVIOUX: You try not to be vengeful in that way.
CHRIS NEUMER: You try? That’s funny, because I don’t think you’d ever do it.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Exactly. But there were girls you might’ve dated, and their mothers were like, "Oh, it’s a crapshoot." Then you make it, or you do something everyone sees, and with one swoop, that image onscreen, and they’re wrong, you see. It’s hard not to take a jab, but as a bigger man, you don’t do it.
CHRIS NEUMER: A bigger man, it seems like there’s a joke right there.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) the thing is, don’t take the bait. That’s the way you have to look at it, because there’s plenty of that.
CHRIS NEUMER: It seems like as you mature too. Not mature as a person, but mature in the industry, you keep learning how to do that more and more.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah.
CHRIS NEUMER: And sort of laughing at the people who do flip back and forth.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Exactly, and it’s sad but that’s the nature of the beast, and you have to deal with it.
CHRIS NEUMER: Might as well accept that it’s there.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, and I understand that. But it’s hard to deal with when they act like they never said those things, and they don’t realize. Well, maybe they do realize how hurtful it is. Before you come out here, it seems like such an unreachable goal or dream, that everyone says, "Yeah, ok." I told a friend of mine years ago, never tell anyone you’re doing this, and I said that because, they’re not going to understand what you’re talking about, especially if it sounds lofty. And then, he went ahead and did it, and of course, they said, "Oh yeah right, whatever, keep dreaming."
CHRIS NEUMER: His name was George, right?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: (Laughs) "Keep Dreaming," people don’t realize how painful that is. But when you make it, then all of a sudden they act like they never said that.
CHRIS NEUMER: Or they rationalize that they said it because it was in your best interest.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, exactly. It’s like, how do you know what’s in my best interest?
CHRIS NEUMER: Now, you’d mentioned this earlier, and you’d said that you had a goal in mind. I came back to this, because you mentioned that you’re not supposed to tell anyone your dreams, which I also assume are your goals. You said you had one major goal that you were working towards. Without fear of me laughing at you, or telling you to get out of here, what is this goal that you’re driving towards?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Just to be able to tell good stories, and have them reach the screen, that’s my goal. A lot of that was reached with Underworld, but I want to be able to do more of that, I want to be a creative force. I guess if I had to hold someone in high esteem it would have to be George Lucas.
CHRIS NEUMER: Circa 1981?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Whatever the case may be, he has still influenced. There’s George Lucas, Spielberg and Stanley, and those guys are creative fantasy forces. You would be hard pressed to find guys who have done what they have done, not only in terms of what they have created, but what it has meant to the culture, and that’s difficult.
CHRIS NEUMER: George Lucas pained more people from 1989 on than any other film maker at all.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: But you know what, man, you can’t judge the guy. I’m not going to judge him on his recent work.
CHRIS NEUMER: Well, let’s go ’86 and say Howard the Duck, or ’84.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: But what does Star Wars mean to us? I’m going to say us.
CHRIS NEUMER: Well, I’ll grant you that, because it means so much to us, and the new ones have landed with such a resounding clunk.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah.
CHRIS NEUMER: I think that if we didn’t care, if we were just like, "Well, I don’t care what you’re doing," then I’d probably go ahead and do that.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, man, but they were so fun.
CHRIS NEUMER: They were, the first –
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Three.
CHRIS NEUMER: Two and a half? Wow, we’re on the same page.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, but still, I just thought they were great. And then Spielberg, and maybe I shouldn’t say this, but I actually liked Close Encounters more than Star Wars. That affected me more, I was like, "This is crazy!" This is cool, I mean even the aliens, looking at them, I thought they were great, they were crazy. I loved that stuff. And with Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark, that was just a bomb movie.
CHRIS NEUMER: Let me ask you this off-topic. You’re a science guy, you’re a Sci-Fi guy. You mentioned the aliens in Close Encounters. Do you ever find that all interpretation of aliens are always in the same kind of human form, only their heads are a little bigger, their eyes are a little bigger?
KEVIN GREVIOUX: By that, do you mean humanoid, or like Star Trek, or do you mean the alien grey types?
CHRIS NEUMER: I mean they have the same basic body shape as most people. I majored in Anthropology; you see how close I came to that. But when you take a look at the evolution of things, you’ve got weird fish that shoot things out of their foreheads, and it all basically came from the same one cell, and branches off in all these different places. I always find it interesting that you have this alien from another planet, a different environment, with different needs, yet it looks surprisingly like a humanoid from here, it even has four or five fingers. The first time you come up with an alien, like in the Abyss, for example, I’ll give Cameron credit for that, it’s not exactly a form, but it’s more of a whisper, a cloud, or something like that.
KEVIN GREVIOUX: Yeah, right. But you know what, it is hard to get people to buy into that stuff, visually.
CHRIS NEUMER: The reason why is extremely obvious.
